Understanding the Voice of the Lord

Increasing numbers of people ignore established sources of wisdom that God provides through prophets. The world is becoming more tumultuous and the "experts" to whom many turn for answers are often revealed as vacuous and unreliable, more often wrong than right. The need for wise guidance has never been greater and those who know how to hear God will get the peace and direction that each of us desires in these confusing times.

I am grateful yet again for the writings of inspired prophets of God that we have today from the Book of Mormon:

 3 Nephi 11:4-6

And it came to pass that again they heard the voice, and they understood it not.

And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came.

And behold, the third time they did understand the voice which they heard;

In this instance, God was speaking to the people but they could not understand. We may very well sit in a church or read from scriptures and thus hear the messages from God, but we may not actually understand what God is telling us.  In these verses, a prophet helps us to better understand what God has to tell us:

1. We have to "open our ears to hear it". So many times, God has already provided answers, but we are too distracted by our own cares to "hear" them. As we set aside quiet time to put the responsibilities of life on hold, we will be more ready to hear what God wants to tell us.  I recall being in places far from the bustle of life that are quiet enough that you can hear the breeze and distant rustle of trees and the occassional bird. In such circumstances, where the buzz of our busy lives is far away, we have a better situation to "open our ears" to what God is saying.
2. We must focus on God, the true source of wisdom. In the verses above, "their eyes were towards the sound". I recall how often my children would talk to me and I obviously wasn't listening - I wasn't looking at them and paying real attention to what they said.  How often do we also hear from God yet are not similarly paying attention?
3. We can get answers directly from God. "...they did look steadfastly toward heaven...". It is good to listen to pastors, priests, and teachers, but it is better still to listen more to God who knows you and what you need far better. True prophets will always encourage a better and more direct access to God, so that we can "understand the voice".

I will be bold here and say that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints points me to scripture and prophets that put me on a direct path to a better understanding of God and Jesus Christ.  I am grateful for the Prophet Joseph Smith who translated the Book of Mormon so that we could have that better understanding of God and Christ's labors on our behalf. I am grateful for prophets that speak to us today, continuously pointing us toward God and what he is saying.  

If we "open our ears" and look to him, we too will understand what he is saying to us.

The Messiah is not LazyJesus

There is much hyperventilating over the new-age concept of God's "unconditional love" for all.  You can likely hear my attitude about it - I think it is a bad road to take.  In so many scriptures, we are told of the conditional nature of salvation and the Lord's favor comes to us if we repent.  I just tripped over another one this morning:

3 Nephi 9:22

Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved.

Many years ago, I created a fake diety called "LazyJesus" and really should have trademarked it. LazyJesus lounges on a theological couch, engrossed in some TV program or such, and dismissively forgives everyone so he is not interrupted from something more interesting to him. LazyJesus saves everyone because he is too busy to make distinctions between good and bad. LazyJesus is that distant dad that isn't paying attention and lets the kids do whatever they please and never disciplines anybody and provides needed cover for any behavior.  The love of LazyJesus is measured by his ability to ignore what is happening and provide a never-ending stream of things free of any requirement. LazyJesus sadly seems to be the God of many modern "Christians".

The idea that Christ has "unconditional" love is yet another indicator that a person worships LazyJesus as opposed to the Christ found in scripture. From the scripture above, we see that "whoso repenteth" will be received in the kingdom of God. In the next phrase is the focus of my thoughts here:  "for such".  This is Christ himself speaking and he says that the act of laying down his life and taking it up again was "for such". One of the central acts of the atonement of Christ was done for "whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child", not for others (not unconditional). Then, another powerful word - therefore - which is to say "based on everything I said before".  It can be confusing because everyone is given immortality freely by the Lord, but that is not the greatest gift available to us.  Because of the fact that only those who repent and become as little children in obedience to Christ get the kingdom of God and Jesus' sin-erasing
sacrifice was done only for them, he reinforces the need for repentance and coming unto him and that this is salvation.

What is the point of the followers of LazyJesus referencing "unconditional love" so much?  It seems to be the inappropriate co-mingling of "love" and "salvation" - such people must think that all people are saved because Jesus loves everyone.  Does the true Christ love you? Yes. Does the fact that he loves you mean that you will be "saved"? No. A large expression of Christ's love is in providing the opportunity to be saved.  Everyone can be saved, but only under the conditions of repentance.  At least in this case, love doesn't conquer all - you must still repent and turn to righteousness.  That is why I constantly bring up repentance - I am just echoing what Christ says all the time throughout scripture!

I advise you against being a devotee of the fictional LazyJesus.  LazyJesus can't save and certainly cannot exalt. The true Christ that constantly preaches repentance - he can and does save, if you repent.

Today's Word of Wisdom

Many people know Latter-Day Saints best by the health code to which most adhere:  The Word of Wisdom.  It has been interpreted to proscribe the use of coffee, tea, tobacco, and harmful drugs, along with encouraging the eating of vegetables and fruits, grains, and a little meat. Though triggered by Emma, the wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, in relation to having to clean up tobacco use after church leadership meetings, the Lord gave this as his justification for revealing the Word of Wisdom:

Doctrine and Covenants 89:4

Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation-

 In the tradition of recent study guides produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I will ask a few "open-ended" questions and let you readers answer for yourselves.

• Given the realities of the modern world and consumption habits, what proscriptions and encouragements do you think the Lord would give today as a "word of wisdom"?
• Relative to the phrasing "evils and designs", beyond what goes into our bodies, what "conspiring" do you think the Lord would "forewarn" us about?

Verse 4 is a broad statement of the realities of life. There have always been evil people and they have always had designs and conspiracies toward us, no matter what naysayers shout - God himself says such things exist.  I recall as a youngster that tobacco advertising on all media was a design by "evil" people to profit from unhealthy products.  The US National Security Agency (NSA), now a very public public part of government, was a secretive organization in the past and those who spoke of it were labeled "conspiracy theorists".  It can readily be seen that what was once the hidden "designs" of "conspiring men" are now out in the open and affecting our lives just as strongly as what we consume.

You may take some time to consider what an updated Word of Wisdom from God would "forewarn" us about today.  Nutrition and health were the subject in the early 19th century, but perhaps there are other matters more potentially damaging about which the Lord would be concerned for us. It is important to study the words of our modern church leaders to know the warnings that have been revealed in our time, just as the Lord revealed knowledge to Joseph Smith in the past.

"Stoning" Among Us

In the Book of Mormon, the Lord catalogs the destruction of many cities and lands as a result of wickedness and abominations and the treatment of those who called out the wicked.

3 Nephi 9:10-11

And behold, the city of Laman, and the city of Josh, and the city of Gad, and the city of Kishkumen, have I caused to be burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof, because of their wickedness in casting out the prophets, and stoning those whom I did send to declare unto them concerning their wickedness and their abominations.

And because they did cast them all out, that there were none righteous among them, I did send down fire and destroy them, that their wickedness and abominations might be hid from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints whom I sent among them might not cry unto me from the ground against them.

We are in the midst of such "stoning those whom [the Lord] did send to declare unto them concerning their wickedness and their abominations". We have witnessed on the news so many incidents of violence against those who presume to speak out against people who revel in perversions. Our society now offers special privilege to the perverse and speech codes that force vocal acceptance of them. On most media, virtual "stones" are thrown at any who dare offend the fornicating and gender-bent. God has proclaimed such as abominations throughout the ages and provides vivid recorded details of the fate of such wicked people and the places where they are sustained. The modern purveyors of perversion work hard to eject or eliminate the voices of those who would call them to repent of their wickedness, just as those of old.

As the opponents of righteousness succeed in silencing their detractors through such a virtual "stoning", nothing stands in the way of God's wrath upon them through fire and destruction. It has happened before and, upon the same conditions of "none righteous among them" in the future, it will happen again.

Repent!

Straightjackets and Guardrails

My podcast player went haywire, perhaps with the intervention of God, and I found myself listening to a very old discussion rather than my morning devotional. I would reference the source, but it is an old idea and I only heard a glancing reference to it.

The story goes that a municipality notices that much money is spent on ambulances reporting to deaths and injuries at the bottom of a high cliff from which many people fall.  An "out-of-the-box" thinker suggests that a guardrail or fence be put at the top of the cliff to prevent such falls in the first place and that the reduced cost of ambulance service would more than pay for the preventative.  I always considered this a lesson in prevention and economics, but the discussion to which I accidently listened was not so narrow in moral scope.

A broad concept, of which such things as socialism and neighborhoods were a part, was being discussed.  At its very heart, the people on the unintended podcast episode were talking about *safety* and the price of it. From the amiable discussion, everyone was convinced of safety's supernal importance and that no cost was too high for maximum safety.

The word "safety" has been bandied about much.  I recall President Trump saying on more than one occasion that this was a big part of a President's job, to ensure the safety of the nation. President Biden would likely attribute his enhanced desire for more safety, far more than Donald professed, to his presidential win. Like the discussion to which I was listening, there is no longer any argument about the centrality of safety in our lives, only the depth of expense society is willing to spend to aquire even more of it.

I have worked in hospitals and prisons, where straightjackets are sometimes used. In every case, the justification for putting a person in a straightjacket is "for their own safety".  It was a bit of a euphemism in prison, because it surely appeared that it was to control behavior and make others that had to deal with the straight-jacketed person feel more comfortable - it had little to do with the protection of the wearer and everything to do with the reducing the fear of others.

In the early stages of our current "public health" scare, society accepted what was touted as a few weeks of lockdown to get hospital services past the "surge" that might overwhelm them. That was more than a year ago and the stated justifications for continued restrictions have altered slightly, but they are still centered on a few societal fears that have swollen far beyond what is healthy or reasonable. Like the straightjacket, the people of our society are heavily constrained "for their own safety" just as the prisoners I knew. I don't really feel safer, nor do many others, and I never really asked for such a depth of safety, especially at the cost that so many have had to pay. We were promised that the "magic" vaccine would end the crisis, but it has not. There is a very real concern that the effective straightjacket placed on us by our well-meaning officials will never be removed because we will all be "safer" with this "new normal".  The continuation of this "public health" emergency has more to do with stoking the fear of the ignorant for power and gain than it does for the "safety" that our leaders seem to think is their job to provide.

Our nation's founding document, the Declaration of Independence, only mentions "safety" once. Our founding fathers rebelled against the smothering tyranny of a king over far fewer grievances and far lower taxes that we now toil under. Those men fought kings for the liberty that God had given them, where we ignore our God and plead with our leaders to enslave us afresh, all in the hope of a little "safety". We should put more faith in a God that wants our liberty rather than governments rife with corrupt people who scheme to profit from our fears.  Jehovah over Pfizer.

I would not be surprised if that old story about the guardrail across the cliff was created by an enterprising fence salesman.

Another Grand Conjunction

 I have just been hit by two "blasts from the past" that conjuncted a few days ago.

When I was in my late 20's, I took a very interesting job as a siesmic navigator on a boat for Petroleum Geoservices, better known as PGS.  I floated on exploration boats for two years and came back to on-shore work when the twins were going to be born.  That was late 1999.

Not too many years later, Lisa and I decided to look at going to graduate school in Shetland, an island group above Scotland. We worked hard to get the arrangements together, but the UK finally said they wouldn't approve a student visa for us, so that plan went down the drain.

Here, I see that a PGS ship, the Ramform Vangard, which was under constuction when I was working for the company, has had to have an extended stay in port at Lerwick (the capital of Shetland). I never thought much of the "Ramform" boats as they reminded me of luxury liners compared to the boats I worked on - they even had a European chef for meals where we settled for a failed Ukranian deckhand as a cook.

https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2021/04/14/crew-on-ship-docked-in-lerwick-in-quarantine-following-covid-cases/

  

Grounding Ourselves during the Maelstrom

When it comes to elections, my candidates rarely win. It would probably be useful to those who seek office to consult with me, just to be sure that I don't plan to vote for them, thus avoiding a nearly-sure loss.

I am not an extremist, at least I don't consider myself one.  The current political climate is rife with extremism, from succession to the "green new deal", from racism to the "cancel" culture. Society is demanding that everyone pick a side in a ideological war where fringe groups battle in a "winner-take-all" fashion and victory will never be claimed until all opposition is destroyed. In the minds of some, a winner's political enemies must literally be killed if they cannot be turned.  I am not of that ilk at all - I want all of us to survive these times and your compelled conversion to one side or the other has never been my aim.

It has been windy at "the Crash Site", which is where I sleep during the work-week.  It is a sandy desert place and I have been impressed by how much sand is picked up by the high winds and blown about.  The landscape changes quite a bit and only the things that I have tied down to various pounded posts are in the same place after a good windstorm.  A strong wind a few months back picked up my dome greenhouse (my former sleeping quarters) and deposited it, twisted and torn, across a neighbor's fence.  Only a number of deeply-set fenceposts now keep it in place in this week's winds. It brings to mind the oft-quoted bible story of the people building houses on sand and on rocks.

In a talk by Chi Hong (Sam) Wong from the April 2021 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the concept of having a good spritual foundation is referenced yet again for us.  Christ himself has reinterated the idea in our own day here:

Doctrine and Covenants 6:24 

Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

I take heart in the assurance that if I am about good things, I will survive just fine. In the current climate of redefinition and hatred, it can be hard to know whether something is good or not, but Christ and his prophets have left us a fine scriptural record of good deeds to follow.  If we let our lives be ruled by the example of Jesus Christ, "ye are built upon my rock", and we have the promise that we will not be overcome by the various evil ideologies swirling about us like a storm.  As we "do good" in Christ's way, we will one day receive the peaceful and glorious future that Jesus offers to those who follow him.

One doesn't have to join an extremist group or vote the "right" way to get by in this world.  You may not get your dream job at your dream company and you may not become a "talking head" on some important news show, but a follower of Jesus Christ will survive and may even (quietly) thrive in our present society.  We have the Lord's promise.